Fortnightly 
Si. 00  per  year 


S Cents 


The  CATHOLIC 
MIND 


No.  14 

July  22,  1903 


The  Real 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  II. 


THE  MESSENGER 
37-29  W.  1 6th  St..  New  York 


The  CATHOLIC  MIND 

1 A periodical  published  fortnightly,  on  the 
eighth  and  twenty-second  of  the  month. 

Each  number  will  contain  an  article  of 
permanent  value,  entire  or  in  part,  on  some 
question  of  the  day,  giving  in  popular 
style  the — 

Best  statements  of  Catholic  doctrine 

t Surest  results  of  historical  research 
latest  word  on  subjects  in  dispute 
Documents  such  as  Papal  Encyclicals 
Pastoral  letters  of  more  than  local  interest 
Important  addresses  at  Catholic  Congresses 
Occasional  sermons  of  special  merit 
Biographies,  and  good  short  stories 
Editorials,  Chronicles,  and  Book  Notes 

These  articles  will  be  from  the  best 
sources,  and  the  rule  of  selection  is : 

One  at  a time , and  the  best  that  can 
be  had , so  that  subscribers  may  keep  each 
number  for  frequent  reading  and  reference . 


THE  CATHOLIC  MIND  $1.00  A YEAR  EVERY  OTHER  WEEK 

ONE  AT  A TIME  (*6HUMB£BS)  8 CENTS  A NUMBER 


THE  MESSENGER 

27  &nd  29  W.  I6th  Street  New  York 


The  Real  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 


ii. 

The  name  of  M.  Paul  Sabatier  has  of  late  become  en- 
twined as  it  were  in  the  public  mind  around  that  of  St. 
Francis  as  of  one  who  had  thrown  much  new  light  on 
the  history  of  the  Seraphic  Patriarch.  For  several  years 
past  M.  Sabatier  has  been  working  among  the  half-buried 
cities  of  early  Franciscan  literature  like  an  industrious 
historical  mole  turning  out  with  amazing  rapidity  literary 
cameos  of  considerable  appearance  and  some  value.  (20) 
Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  literary  value  of  M.  Saba- 
tier’s documentary  “discoveries,”  one  thing  is  certain,  that 
the  enthusiastic  and  energetic  work  of  the  French  critic 
has  given  an  immense  impetus  to  the  present  movement 
of  Franciscan  research.  Indeed,  had  M.  Sabatier  not 
written  his  “Life”  of  St.  Francis  it  is  more  than  prob- 
able that  several  subsequent  works  on  the  same  subject 
would  never  have  seen  the  light  seeing  that  they  are  little 
more  than  a popularization  of  the  hypotheses  of  M.  Sa- 

(20)  Among  them  are  the  following:  Vie  de  S.  Frangois 
d’ Assise,  which  forms  the  subject  of  the  present  article ; Specu- 
lum Perfectionis  sen  S.  Francisci  Assisiensis  Legenda  Antiquis- 
sima:  Tractatus  de  Indulgentia  S.  Mariae  de  Portiuncula ; Flor- 
etum  S.  Francisci  Assisiensis ; tin  Nouveau  chapitre  de  la  vie  de 
S.  Frangois;  Description  du  Manuscrit  Franciscain  de  Leignitz; 
Regula  Antiqua  Fratrum  et  sororum  de  poenitentia;  De  I’authen- 
ticite  de  la  Legende  de  S.  Frangois ; S.  Francisci  legendae  veteris 
fragmenta.  Paris:  Libraire  Fischbacher. 


2 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


batier.  (21)  In  his  “Life”  M.  Sabatier  has  given  expres- 
sion to  all  the  neo-Protestant  Franciscan  sympathies.  It 
may  not,  therefore,  be  amiss  to  try  and  form  a correct 
judgment  as  to  the  literary  and  religious  aspect  of  the 
French  critic’s  writings  especially  as  it  is  probable  that  he 
will  soon  visit  the  United  States. 

M.  Sabatier  himself  has  told  us  (22)  the  simple  story 
of  what  it  was  that  first  led  him  to  study  St.  Francis  and 
to  devote  his  life  to  him.  He  had  been  to  Assisi  like 
other  tourists  to  see  the  place.  By  his  side  in  the  omni- 
bus that  took  him  back  to  the  station  sat  a free-thinking 
old  doctor  of  the  Garibaldian  school  who  began  to  talk 
about  St.  Francis.  At  first  the  old  doctor  was  sarcastic, 
asking  M.  Sabatier  if  he  had  procured  any  relics  or  won- 
der-working articles  connected  with  the  Saint,  that,  he 
averred,  being  the  principal  object  of  many  visitors  to  the 
shrine  of  St.  Francis.  “No,”  said  M.  Sabatier,  “I  have 
been  looking  at  Giotto’s  work  chiefly.”  It  had  hardly 
struck  the  French  critic  that  St.  Francis  was  the  main 
interest  of  Assisi ; still  less  that  he  was  not  a more  or  less 
mythical  personage  of  no  particular  value  to  the  world 
at  large.  Then  to  his  surprise  the  old  free-thinker  burst 
out  into  the  most  extraordinary  language  of  enthusiasm 
over  St.  Francis,  speaking  of  him  as  one  of  the  Fathers 
of  Italy  and  as  one  of  the  greatest  reformers  the  world 
had  ever  known.  The  old  doctor  hardly  thought  that  he 
was  raising  up  a new  biographer  to  St.  Francis,  but  this 
conversation  was  the  turning  point  in  M.  Sabatier’s  life. 
His  attention  was  arrested.  “Was  this  Francis  of  Assisi 


(21)  Such,  for  example,  as  “Francis,  the  Little  Poor  Man  of 
Assisi,”  by  James  Adderley.  (London,  Edw.  Arnold,  1901),  and 
“The  Sons  of  St.  Francis,”  by  Anne  MacDonell.  (London,  J.  M. 
Dent  & Co.,  1903). 

(22)  In  a recent  conference  before  the  Dante  Society  of  Milan. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


3 


truly  all  this  man  said?  Has  such  a man  really  walked 
the  earth  ? Let  me  go  and  see.”  This  was  about  fifteen 
years  ago. 

M.  Sabatier  went,  saw,  and  was  conquered.  Wishing 
in  turn  to  lead  others  captive  he  decided  to  write  a book 
on  St.  Francis,  and  in  due  course  put  forth  his  “Vie  de  St. 
Francois” —a  volume  that,  crowned  by  the  French 
Academy,  has  passed  through  some  twenty-five  editions. 
(23)  That  the  literary  worth  of  M.  Sabatier’s  book 
should  have  met  with  recognition  at  the  hands  of  the 
Academy  is  not  surprising.  The  manner  in  which  the 
eminent  critic  relates  the  life  of  St.  Francis  is  inimitable 
and  charming  beyond  compare.  He  can  paint  a picture  or 
tell  a story  in  a phrase.  What  is  even  more  difficult  he 
knows  how  to  command  your  attention  and  sustain  your 
interest  to  the  end.  It  is  less  easy  to  understand  how 
the  life  of  a saint  could  in  our  day  have  met  with  greater 
literary  success  than  almost  any  other  book  in  the  last 
decade.  Twenty-five  editions  would  be  nothing  extra- 
ordinary for  a “psychological”  novel,  but  for  a work  of 
hagiography  it  is  a great  deal.  For  though  we  are  eager 
enough  to  find  heroes  nowadays  and  to  worship  them 
they  are  not  of  the  canonized  order.  Nor  does  the  science 
of  the  saints  hold  a prominent  place  on  the  list  of  branches 
which  engage  the  minds  of  present  day  students.  How 
then  to  account  for  the  success  of  M.  Sabatier’s  book? 
The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.  M.  Sabatier’s  hagiography 
is  not  of  the  ordinary  kind  he  is  not  a priest,  not  even  a 
Catholic;  and  he  has  applied  to  the  study  of  St.  Francis 
all  the  methods  of  the  “Higher  Criticism.” 

(23)  Vie  de  S.  Francois  d’Assise,  par  Paul  Sabatier,  Paris, 
1894.  We  are  quoting  throughout  from  the  English  translation 
of  Louise  Seymour  Houghton,  published  by  Chas.  Scribner’s 
Sons,  New  York,  1899. 


4 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


We  have  said  that  M.  Sabatier  is  not  a Catholic.  To 
what  particular  private  brand  of  Protestantism  he  may 
belong  we  do  not  pretend  to  know.  He  tells  us  that  he 
is  a “Protestant  by  birth  not  otherwise.”  (24)  Be  this 
as  it  may  his  work  is  the  very  incarnation  of  Protestant- 
ism, being  a systematic  exposition,  a continuous  defence, 
and  a constant  panegyric  of  that  false  theory  which  seeks 
to  “enthrone  individual  conscience  as  the  judge  of  last 
resort”  (p.  260).  This  principle  of  private  judgment 
we  have  been  assured  (25)  has  saved  the  world  from 
“the  despotic  and  soul  stupefying  Sacerdotalism  of  the 
Romanists” — which  is  a polemic  manner  of  describing 
the  external  authority  of  the  Church  which  Catholics  hold 
as  their  supreme  criterion  and  rule  of  certitude.  The  very 
corner  stone  then  of  Protestantism  is  its  denial  of  this 
external  authority.  Prove  that  there  exists  an  external 
authority  in  matters  religious  and  by  that  proof  you  dis- 
prove Protestantism.  Hence  if  there  be  one  thing  more 
than  another  that  to  use  a somewhat  vulgar  though  ex- 
pressive phrase,  stinks  in  the  nostrils  of  M.  Sabatier,  that 
one  thing  is  Papal  Supremacy.  Nor  is  this  surprising. 
For  does  not  the  acceptance  of  this  fundamental  principle 
of  Christianity  imply  submission,  obedience,  surrender  of 
private  judgment,  annihilation  of  self  in  matters  of  faith, 
even  collapse  and  subversion  of  all  national,  schismat- 
ical  or  heretical  Churches?  And  is  not  M.  Sabatier  the 
champion  of  those  “who  preach  in  the  name  of  the  in- 
ward voice”  (p.  72).  Anyone  who  has  read  the  recent 
work  of  M.  Sabatier’s  master,  Harnack,  on  the  essence  of 

(24)  It  is  so  stated  in  the  Corriere  della  Sera  of  Milan.  Aug. 
12-13,  1902. 

(25)  By  the  late  Prof.  Blackie,  Natural  History  of  Atheism. 
p.  184. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


5 


Christianity  (26)  will  easily  realize  that  M.  Sabatier’s 
“Life”  of  St.  Francis  is  a most  cleverly  devised  apology 
for  that  amalgam  of  creeds  which  is  known  as  “Liberal 
Protestantism  ” — of  those,  that  is,  who  reject  what  they  call 
supernatural  religion,  to  wit,  the  whole  system  of  divine 
revelation  and  particularly  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  Ob- 
stinately closing  their  eyes  to  the  plainest  evidence  of  the 
Divine  origin  and  character  of  Christianity,  these  “Liberal 
Protestants”  stultify  reason  by  calling  themselves  Ration- 
alists. Although  Rationalism  is  but  the  logical  issue  and 
outcome  of  Protestantism,  we  are  none  the  less  surprised 
to  find  so  many  prominent  clergymen  of  the  Anglican 
Church  among  M.  Sabatier’s  adherents.  Anglicanism  is 
comprehensive  and  elastic  enough  but  we  should  scarcely 
have  thought  that  it  could  be  stretched  so  far  as  to  in- 
clude among  its  ministers  those  who  as  consistent  follow- 
ers of  M.  Sabatier  are  bound  to  blot  out  from  their  minds 
altogether  the  idea  of  the  supernatural.  Or  may  it  be 
that  these  worthy  parsons,  many  of  whom  have  the  honor 
of  our  Lord  at  stake  and  really  venerate  St.  Francis,  do 
not  realize  that  the  object  in  seeking  to  “rationalize”  the 
Saint  is  nothing  less  than  a covert  attempt  to  dethrone 
the  Son  of  God — to  whose  Divinity  St.  Francis  remains 
a living  witness  in  the  face  of  false  criticism  and  its  allies. 

But  to  return  to  M.  Sabatier  we  believe  that  he  is  a 
Strasburger,  that  he  went  through  a course  of  theology 
in  Strasburg  and  exercised  there  for  a time  the  functions 
of  a “pastor.”  It  was  but  natural  therefore  to  expect 
that  as  M.  Sabatier  the  pastor  had  preached  the  Gospel, 
M.  Sabatier  the  biographer  would  treat  St.  Francis — 

(26)  Das  Wesen  des  Christentums,  von  Adolf  Harnack. 
Fiinfte  Auflage.  Leipzig.  Hinrichs,  1902.  An  English  transla- 
tion by  Thomas  Bailey  Saunders,  entitled  “What  Is  Christianity?” 
is  published  by  Putnam’s,  New  York. 


6 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


that  he  would  put  every  critical  study  at  the  beck  of  his 
theological  ideas.  And  so  he  does. 

Finding  that  the  St.  Francis  of  history  was  the  contra- 
diction of  all  his  preconceived  theological  ideas,  there 
were  two  courses  open  to  him ; to  take  St.  Francis  as  he 
stood  and  to  abandon  his  ideas  or  to  repaint  the  portrait 
of  St.  Francis  according  to  those  ideas.  He  chose  the 
latter  course.  Hence  his  book  is  not  a real  biography ; it 
is  a thesis.  But  it  is  not  the  first  history  ad  probandum, 
to  use  the  ancient  formula,  which  has  been  written  of 
late  years  at  the  expense  of  St.  Francis.  We  have  had 
the  Salvation  Army  attempt  to  transform  St.  Francis  into 
a mediaeval  staff-captain  (27) — an  attempt  which  even 
so  thoughtful  a writer  as  Sir  Walter  Besant  took  seri- 
ously. (28)  But  Sir  Walter  Besant  was  by  profession 
a writer  of  fiction;  M.  Sabatier,  being  a student  of  his- 
tory, knows  better  than  to  imagine  that  St.  Francis’ 
“scheme  of  salvation”  consisted  simply  in  an  appeal  to 
“come  to  Jesus,  etc.,”  like  that  of  the  Salvation  Army. 
Nor  is  M.  Sabatier  inconsequent  enough  like  Gebhard  (29) 
to  place  St.  Francis  between  Arnold  of  Brescia  and  Fred- 
erick II,  as  one  working  with  the  same  intent  as  the  tri- 
bune and  the  despot.  Neither  does  M.  Sabatier  subscribe 
to  the  theory  of  Thode,  which  makes  St.  Francis  a har- 
binger of  the  so-called  Reformation.  (30)  M.  Sabatier 
knows  better  than  to  suppose  that  St.  Francis,  even  in 


(27)  Brother  Francis ; or,  Less  than  the  Least,  by  “Staff-Cap- 
tain” Douglas,  of  the  Salvation  Army,  with  an  introduction  by 
“General”  Booth.  “Red-Hot  Library”  Series. 

(28)  “The  Work  of  the  Salvation  Army,”  by  Sir  Walter  Be- 
sant, Contemporary  Review,  Dec.,  1897. 

(29)  Italic  Mystique. 

(30)  Franz  von  Assisi  und  die  Anfdnge  der  Kunst  der  Renais- 
sance in  Italien.  Berlin,  1885. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


7 


the  highest  flights  of  his  vivid  Italian  imagination,  ever 
supposed  that  men  of  sense  would  try  to  reform  branches 
of  the  Church  by  uprooting  the  tree  altogether.  He 
clearly  states  (p.  xvii)  that  St.  Francis’  attitude  towards 
the  Church  “was  that  of  filial  obedience.”  Yet  this  is 
only  a shield  wherewith  to  hide  a new  assault  of  a more 
delicate  nature.  By  a “conscientious  criticism  of  his- 
tory” combined  with  a “deeper  insight”  into  the  philos- 
ophy of  things — a comparative  study  of  religion — St. 
Francis  is  “rationalized.”  What  does  that  mean?  It 
means  that  having  been  despoiled  of  everything  super- 
natural and  reduced  to  something  merely  natural  and  not 
very  orthodox,  St.  Francis  becomes  the  precursor  of 
religious  subjectivism  (p.  335),  wishing  only  to  obey 
a certain  undefinable  being  or  idea  of  some  sort  (p.  236). 
He  stands,  that  is,  for  a popular  religion  strange  to  all 
dogmatics  having  its  roots  in  a purely  subjective  affec- 
tion and  preaches  a personal  imitation  of  Christ  in  direct 
contrast  to  the  hierarchical  principles  of  the  Roman 
Church.  Just  because  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  St. 
Francis  were  really  anti-Roman  and  anti-organizational, 
violence  was  done  him  both  living  and  dead  by  the  Ro- 
man Curia  in  order  to  stifle  the  germ  of  individual  and 
irresponsible  mysticism  that  was  the  essence  of  his  life 
and  ideal.  Like  “the  meek  Galilean  who  preached  the 
religion  of  a personal  revelation  without  ceremonial  or 
dogmatic  law,”  so  too  St.  Francis  “triumphed  only  on 
condition  of  being  considered  and  of  permitting  his  words 
of  spirit  and  life  to  be  confiscated  by  a church  essentially 
dogmatic  and  sacerdotal”  (XVIII).  Such  in  outline  is 
M.  Sabatier’s  thesis.  It  is  a bad  one  and  betrays  and 
tyrannizes  him  throughout  nearly  five  hundred  pages. 

At  the  outset  we  have  no  difficulty  in  believing  M. 
Sabatier’s  assertion  that  he  “sat  for  a time  at  the  feet  of 


8 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


Renan.”  Both  belong  to  the  same  school — that  school 
which  arrogating  to  itself  in  the  name  of  science  the 
monopoly  of  criticism,  proceeds  in  the  name  of  criticism 
to  erect  as  a dogma  the  exclusion  of  the  supernatural. 
For  the  “scientific”  temper  of  our  times,  in  one  respect 
so  excellent,  in  another  little  else  than  a modern  form 
of  superstition,  dislikes  the  idea  of  divine  “interference.” 
“It  is  very  interesting  to  note,”  says  a modern  psychol- 
ogist, in  one  of  Mr.  Howells’  stories,  with  a scientific 
smile,  “how  corrupting  anything  supernatural  or  mysti- 
cal is.”  Acting  on  this  criterion  the  “higher  criticism” 
would  free  the  world  of  the  supernatural  as  of  so  much 
corruption.  Of  course  it  requires  no  more  than  a mo- 
ment’s reflection  to  convince  one’s  self  how  unscientific 
and  “tendential”  such  a subjective  method  of  proceeding 
is,  since  it  has  against  it  alike  the  fundamental  laws  of 
history  no  less  than  the  rules  of  sound  logic.  Moreover 
the  life  of  any  saint  treated  in  such  a fashion  must  nec- 
essarily be  restricted  by  limits  which  sound  criticism 
condemns.  As  to  M.  Sabatier’s  biography  of  St.  Francis 
it  has  been  justly  said  (31)  that  it  is  with  regard  to  the 
Saint  and  the  order  he  founded  exactly  what  the  “Life  of 
Jesus”  by  Renan  was  with  regard  to  our  Lord  and  the 
beginning  of  Christianity — an  endeavor  to  explain  every- 
thing by  natural  causes  or  in  other  words  a study  im- 
bued with  the  most  absolute  rationalism.  (32)  M.  Renan 

(31)  By  an  anonymous  contribution  to  the  Franciscan  Herald 
for  Dec.,  1902,  to  which  article  the  present  writer  begs  to  ac- 
knowledge his  indebtedness  for  several  quotations  and  references. 

(32)  The  Italian  translators  of  M.  Sabatier’s  book,  Profs.  Ghi- 
diglia  and  Pontani,  praise  the  French  critic  for  having  “stripped 
St.  Francis  of  the  supernatural,  etc.,”  see  page  viii  of  the  Italian 
translation  (Rome:  Loescher.  1896).  And  the  names  of  those 
whom  M.  Sabatier  has  collected  in  his  train  in  Italy  stand  for  all 
that  is  most — “Liberal.” 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


9 


had  in  his  famous  book  striven  while  professing  the 
most  reverent  admiration  for  our  Lord  to  take  away 
every  supernatural  characteristic  from  Himself  and  from 
His  work  just  as  M.  Sabatier  whilst  proclaiming  his  love 
for  the  Povercllo  has  endeavored  to  take  from  him  his 
character  of  Saint. 

M.  Sabatier  of  course  affirms  (p.  xxxiii)  that  he  is 
impartial,  and  that  he  wishes  to  judge  from  facts,  but 
never  have  facts  been  so  made  to  give  way  before  gra- 
tuitous supposition,  random  conjecture  and  ambiguous 
explanation  than  when  M.  Sabatier  sets  to  work  to  prove 
what  he  wants  to  be  proven.  As.  M.  Sabatier’s  attitude 
takes  its  full  significance  where  he  treats  of  the  Stigmata, 
it  is  interesting  to  note  how  he  handles  the  subject.  He 
devotes  Chapter  XVII,  a very  short  one,  to  the  miracle. 
After  describing  minutely  and  poetically  the  forest  and 
rocks  of  Alverna,  he  endeavors,  by  subtle  psychological 
analysis,  to  emphasize  St.  Francis’  spiritual  state  when 
he  retired  to  the  mountain.  He  represents  the  Saint  as 
having  lived  for  years  in  closest  union  with  our  Lord,  so 
that  he  could  say  with  St.  Paul : “It  is  no  more  I that 
live,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me.”  (33)  This  is  true,  “Fran- 
cis lived  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross,”  as  Blessed  Angela  of 
Foligno  puts  it.  (34)  The  Saint  is  shown  to  us  on 
Mount  Alverna  as  even  more  than  ordinarily  absorbed 
by  his  ardent  desire  to  suffer  for  and  with  Christ — pass- 
ing his  days  in  the  forest  in  meditation,  reading  the  Gos- 
pel over  and  over  again,  always  pausing  at  the  story  of 
the  Passion.  Moreover,  the  “vision  of  the  Crucified 
One  took  the  fuller  possession  of  his  faculties  as  the  day 


(33)  Gal.,  11,  20. 

(34)  See  Le  Monnier’s  “History  of  St.  Francis,”  p.  398.  Lon- 
don : Kegan  Paul,  1894. 


IO  THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


of  the  Elevation  of  the  Holy  Cross  drew  near.”  Having 
thus,  as  it  were,  enumerated  all  the  extenuating  circum- 
stances of  the  miracle,  if  we  may  so  speak,  M.  Sabatier 
briefly  describes  the  apparition  of  the  Seraph  and  abrupt- 
ly brings  the  chapter  to  a close  (p.  296)  with  these 
words : “Stirred  to  the  very  depths  of  his  being  he  was 
anxiously  seeking  the  meaning  of  it  all  when  he  per- 
ceived on  his  body  the  stigmata  of  the  Crucified.”  He 
adds  (35)  that  the  “ psychological  agreement  between 
the  external  circumstances /”  to  wit,  the  conditions  by 
which  St.  Francis  was  surrounded  at  the  time,  “to  the 
event  is  so  close  that  an  invention  of  this  character  would 
be  as  inexplicable  as  the  fact  itself  ” 

Thus  he  rejects  Renan’s  insinuation  that  the  stigma- 
tization had  been  either  a pious  fraud  or  an  invention  of 
Brother  Elias  and  does  not  hesitate  to  declare  his  belief 
that  the  stigmata  were  real.  But  this  conclusion  though 
more  reverent  and  much  cleverer  than  that  of  Renan, 
is  quite  as  negative.  For,  like  his  master,  what  Sabatier 
gives  with  one  hand  he  takes  away  with  the  other. 
Thus  while  admitting  the  stigmata  to  be  a fact  he  de- 
stroys all  idea  of  it  being  a miracle  by  reducing  the  mi- 
raculous to  the  “unknowable.”  This  he  does  on  the  a 
priori  assumption  that  we  know  everything  and  that 
among  other  items  of  knowledge  we  possess  this  viz., 
that  there  can  be  no  direct  intervention  of  the  first  cause, 
i.  e.y  God,  in  certain  special  cases,  and  that  He  cannot 
alter  or  suspend  the  laws  of  nature  at  His  will.  Of 
course  as  Canon  Knox- Little  remarks:  “(36)  no  real 
believer  in  God  can  well  doubt  that,  whilst  He  conducts 
the  affairs  of  His  own  world  in  a way  so  orderly  and 


(35)  Appendix  1,  p.  435. 

(36)  “St.  Francis  of  Assisi,”  Appendix  i.,  p.  318. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


1 1 


regulated  that  we  are  able  to  observe  the  fact,  still — if 
He  be  God  and  since  Fie  is  God — there  must  be  occasions 
when  He  may  see  fit  to  conduct  them  in  a manner,  not 
indeed  disorderly  or  unregulated,  but  such  as  we  are  not 
accustomed  to.”  This  is  not  however  the  place  to  dis- 
cuss the  possibility  of  miracles,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  do 
so,  but,  as  Cardinal  Newman  says,  (37)  “there  is  the 
grossest  inconsistency  on  the  very  face  of  the  matter  for 
anyone  so  to  strain  out  the  gnat  and  swallow  the  camel 
as  to  profess  what  is  inconceivable  yet  to  protest  against 
what  is  purely  within  the  limits  of  intelligent  hypoth- 
esis.” But  M.  Sabatier  does  not  stop  here.  He  asserts 
(p.  433)  that  the  idea  of  a miracle  is  an  immoral  one 
because  “if  God  intervenes  thus  irregularly  in  the  af- 
fairs of  men,  the  latter  can  hardly  do  otherwise  than 
seek  to  become  courtiers  who  expect  all  things  of  the 
sovereign’s  favor!’  Canon  Knox-Little’s  comment  on 
this  proposition  is  worth  quoting : “This  excellent  writer 
decides  against  the  thing  being  miraculous  on  the  aston- 
ishing ground  that  belief  in  miracles  weakens  manliness 
and  morality,  for  that  if  God  ‘intervenes  in  this  way  in 
the  affairs  of  men,  He  is  guilty  of  favoritism,  and  His  ser- 
vants become  mere  courtiers  looking  for  favors !’  This 
grotesque  argument  would  carry  us  at  once  into  endless 
difficulties.  Still  Sabatier’s  dislike  to  miracles  and  his 
absurd  argument  against  a miracle,  make  his  adherence 
to  the  truth  of  the  stigmata  as  a fact  all  the  more  valu- 
able from  my  point  of  view.  He  believes  in  matters 
which  pass  our  ordinary  experience.  He  agrees  as  to 
the  existence  of  the  ‘unheard  of,’  ‘the  unexpected/  etc., 
in  life,  provided  that  ‘this  new  notion  (!)  of  the  super- 
natural’ be  excluded.  We  need  not  fight  about  words.  If 
it  comforts  the  (scientific)  mind  to  acknowledge  the 


(37)  Essay  on  Miracles. 


12 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


‘unheard-of,’  ‘the  unexpected,’  etc.,  in  life,  a believer  in 
God  may  well  be  satisfied  that  a real  step  is  taken  towards 
truth,  towards  what  he  calls  miracle  and  towards  the 
very  old  ‘notion’  of  the  supernatural.  . . . My  own  be- 
lief is  that  the  more  carefully  the  evidence  is  examined 
and  due  weight  given  to  the  probability  the  more  clearly 
the  ‘miracle’  (as  I should  call  it)  or  the  ‘unusual  fact’ 
(as  M.  Paul  Sabatier  would  call  it)  is  satisfactorily  es- 
tablished.” (38) 

M.  Sabatier’s  treatment  of  the  stigmata  shows  plainly 
how  under  the  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  Saint  the  ra- 
tionalistic critic  remains — a fact  which  goes  far  to  ex- 
plain how  he  so  completely  misunderstands  the  most 
sublime  aspect  as  it  seems  to  us — of  the  Saint’s  physiog- 
nomy— that  whole  grand  series  of  magnificent  facts  and 
stupendous  truths  that  concern  the  supernatural  side  of 
St.  Francis  life.  True  M.  Sabatier  has  a Chapter  (XI) 
on  “The  Inner  Man  and  Wonder-Working”  but  withal 
not  even  a hint  is  given  us  of  that  inner  devotional  life 
(39)  which  was  the  true  source  of  all  the  Saint’s  vir- 
tues. Nothing  for  example  is  said  as  to  the  place  which 
the  mystery  of  the  Incarnation  held  in  the  life  of  St. 
Francis,  yet  into  few  souls  if  any  has  so  deeply  entered 
the  full  meaning  of  that  tremendous  mystery.  No  one 
better  than  he  has  appreciated  our  Lord’s  words.  “God 
so  loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begotten  Son.” 
(Jo.  Ill,  16).  The  Infant  of  Bethlehem  seemed  to  him 
the  love  of  God  Himself  made  visible.  (40)  The  Incar- 

(38)  Appendix  to  his  excellent  work  already  quoted,  p.  315. 

(39)  Studehat  in  interiorem  hominem  recondere  Jesum  Chris- 
tum. Tres  Socii,  p.  22. 

(40)  In  his  own  poetic  language  he  says : 

“ D’amore,  non  de  came  tu  nacesti 
Humanato  amove,  che  ne  saluasse.” 

Amor,  de  cavitate  Strophe  27. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI.  13 


nation  was  to  St.  Francis  as  to  St.  Paul  the  great  mys- 
tery of  love  in  which  God  and  man  meet : to  him  the 
soft  light  of  the  Incarnation  lay  all  over  the  Earth.  His 
biographer  who  knew  him  well  says  of  him  “Jesus  was 
all  things  to  him,  Jesus  was  his  heart,  Jesus  was  on  his 
lips,  Jesus  was  in  his  eyes,  in  his  ears,  in  his  hands.  He 
was  in  his  whole  being/’  (41)  It  is  true.  He  had  con- 
sequently not  only  a deep  and  filial  love  for  the  Mother 
of  our  Redeemer  but  a tender  devotion  for  the  Saints  and 
Angels — the  fruits  and  ministers  of  the  Incarnation.  He 
had  also  a special  love  for  the  festival  of  Christmas.  He 
called  it  “the  feast  of  feasts”  and  wished  characteris- 
tically that  corn  could  be  spread  along  the  roads  on  that 
day  so  that  the  birds  “especially  our  brothers,  the  larks,” 
might  enter  into  Christmas  joy.  (42)  M.  Sabatier  viv- 
idly describes  (p.  285)  the  joy  with  which  St.  Francis 
celebrated  the  feast  of  Christmas  in  the  woods  at  Grec- 
cio.  But  for  one  who  reads  the  mind  of  St.  Francis  so 
often  it  seems  strange  that  M.  Sabatier  should  not  have 
traced  the  Saint's  actions  on  this  occasion  to  their  source 
and  pointed  out  the  motives  underlying  them.  Did  he 
fear  lest  they  might  be  based  on  a steadfast  faith  in  the 
Divinity  of  Christ?  We  do  not  know  but  this  much  is 
certain — take  away  from  St.  Francis  this  faith  in  the 
Incarnation  and  the  melody  of  his  life  is  utterly  de- 
stroyed. What  wonder  then  if  a note  of  discord  pre- 
dominates in  M.  Sabatier’s  book.  Of  all  men  a Liberal 
Protestant,  since  he  denies  Jesus  Christ  was  God  Incar- 
nate, can  least  understand  St.  Francis. 

Rationalism,  like  all  narrowing  influences,  closes  the 
eyes  to  much  truth.  Hence  there  are  other  aspects  of  the 


(41)  1 Cel.,  p.  97. 

(42)  1 Cel,  cap.  X,  85,  86,  87. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


Saint’s  life  which  wholly  escape  M.  Sabatier.  Nothing 
is  told  us  of  his  spirit  of  prayer  (43)  or  of  the  various 
means  by  which  he  trained  himself  in  the  acquisition  of 
those  supernatural  virtues  that  should  ensure  not  the 
spirit  of  poverty  alone,  but  also  the  spirit  of  chastity 
and  above  all  that  of  obedience.  For  St.  Francis  obedi- 
ence was  the  basis  of  the  whole  religious  life.  (44) 
“What  case,”  he  asks,  “is  more  hopeless  than  that  of  a 
religious  who  doth  neglect  and  despise  his  obedi- 
ence?” (45)  But  M.  Sabatier,  who  is  convinced  that 
man’s  conscience  is  to  have  no  other  guide  but  self,  en- 
tirely fails  to  understand  St.  Francis’  spirit  of  obedience. 
Hence,  commenting  on  some  passages  of  the  Saint’s  work 
which  insist  on  the  full  and  blind  obedience  of  the  infe- 
rior to  the  superior,  of  the  layman  to  the  priest,  of  the 
priest  to  Pope,  he  assures  us  that  these  represent  “mo- 
ments of  exhaustion  in  which  inspiration  was  silent” 
(p.  260).  Referring  in  particular  to  a text  where  the 
truly  obedient  religious  is  compared  to  a corpse  (46) 
Sabatier  says  (p.  261),  “this  longing  for  corpse-like  obe- 
dience witnesses  to  the  ravages  with  which  his  soul  had 
been  laid  waste.  It  corresponds  in  the  moral  domain  to 
the  cry  for  annihilation  of  great  physical  anguish.”  “It 
would  be  superfluous,”  he  adds  (p.  262),  “to  pause  over 
other  admonitions.  For  the  most  part  they  are  reflec- 
tions inspired  by  circumstances.”  Verily  superfluous 
and  circumstances  are  convenient  words.  Their  use  here 
affords  an  interesting  example  of  the  absolute  serenity 

(43)  “It  was  more  than  a man  praying,”  says  Celano,  “it  was 
prayer  itself.” — 2 Cel.,  197. 

(44)  1 Cel.,  xvii. 

(45)  Spec.,  xlix. 

(46)  Verum  descvibens  obedientem  sub  figura  corporis  mortui 
respondit  (II  Cel.  Ill,  cap.  xcix)  Spec,  xxix,  6,  Conform,  1 76. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


i5 


with  which  the  “higher  criticism’’  disposes  of  anything 
that  savors  of  the  supernatural  as  being  really  “not 
worth  while.” 

His  treatment  of  the  Saint’s  spirit  of  penance  is  also 
interesting  as  further  illustrating  M.  Sabatier’s  point  of 
view.  “It  would  not  be  difficult,  he  avers  (p.  41),  “to 
find  acts  and  words  of  his  which  recall  the  contempt  for 
matter  of  the  Cathari,  for  example,  his  way  of  treating 
his  body.”  Anyone  acquainted  with  the  abominable  doc- 
trines of  the  Cathari  will  realize  what  a gross  slur  such 
a comparison  implies  upon  the  holiness  of  St.  Francis. 
But  let  that  pass.  St.  Bonaventure  likens  the  Saint’s  body 
to  the  court  of  the  Temple.  In  this  court  there  was  a 
perpetual  sacrifice.  Alluding  to  these  austerities  of  the 
Saint,  M.  Sabatier  ascribes  them  to  the  “spirit  of  evil  that 
now  and  then  reappears  in  him.”  Some  of  his  counsels 
to  the  friars  on  this  head  (p.  41)  are  spoken  of  as  “mo- 
mentary but  inevitable  obscurations,  moments  of  forget- 
fulness, of  discouragement  when  a man  is  not  himself 
and  repeats  mechanically  what  he  hears  around  him. 
The  real  St.  Francis  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  lover  of  na- 
ture; he  who  sees  in  the  whole  creation  the  work  of 
Divine  Goodness,”  etc.,  as  if  a man  could  not  at  the  same 
time  practice  mortification  and  be  an  admirer  of  the  beau- 
ties of  nature!  But  after  all  there  are  heights  which 
even  the  “higher  criticism”  cannot  attain  (47),  and  M. 
Sabatier  could  hardly  be  expected  to  understand  what  a 
chivalrous  love,  so  to  say,  was  that  which  St.  Francis 
showed  for  humiliation  and  self-abnegation.  For,  as 
Canon  Rawnsley  remarked  in  his  address  at  Assisi  (48), 

(47)  * ‘ Non  medullam  attingunt  sed  corticem  rodunt.  ’ ’ Leo 
XIII,  Ency.  Provo.,  No.  18,  1893. 

(48)  At  the  inauguration  of  the  International  Society  of  Fran- 
ciscan Studies,  June,  1902. 


1 6 THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


“of  that  deep  central  humbleness  of  heart  which  underlay 
everything  which  St.  Francis  did  the  fountain  head  is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and  none  can  find  it  rising  up 
within  their  hearts  to  cleanse  and  refresh  them,  save 
those  who  will  go  to  the  same  well  St.  Francis  went  to 
daily  and  kneel  and  drink.”  This  is  well  said,  and  as 
Shakespeare’s  grave  digger  remarked,  “the  p’int  of  it  is 
in  the  application  of  it.”  But  this  by  the  way. 

So  much  for  M.  Sabatier’s  treatment  of  St.  Francis 
as  an  “inner  man.”  Let  us  see  what  he  has  to  say  as  to 
his  “wonder  working.”  “All  that  is  magic  and  miracle- 
working,”  he  avers  (p.  192),  “occupies  in  his  life  an 
entirely  secondary  rank.”  (49)  It  is  interesting  to  note 
how  M.  Sabatier  brackets  magic  and  miracle  working 
together,  just  as  elsewhere,  speaking  of  the  poverty  of 
the  early  Franciscans,  he  says  (p.  127),  that  it  had  in  it 
“nothing  ascetic  or  barbarous” — as  if  these  words  were 
also  correlative  terms.  In  his  desire  to  emphasize  what 
he  calls  (p.  192)  the  “almost  complete  absence  of  the 
marvellous  in  the  life  of  St.  Francis,  M.  Sabatier  resorts 
to  his  favorite  device — antithesis — and  holds  up  St.  An- 
tony of  Padua  by  way  of  contrast  to  St.  Francis  as  a 
horrible  example  of  the  vulgar  art  of  miracle  working. 
Indeed,  M.  Sabatier  is  quite  out  of  patience  with  St. 
Antony,  because  the  gentle  thaumaturgist’s  life  was  lit- 
erally “hung  with  miracles,”  to  use  Cardinal  Newman’s 
fine  phrase.  But  we  fear  that  St.  Anthony  will  go  on 
working  miracles  in  spite  of  M.  Sabatier.  It  is  a way 
he  has.  The  French  critic  is  also  not  a little  scandalized 
because  St.  Bonaventure  was  narrow  enough  to  believe 


(49)  Elsewhere  he  avers  that  the  Saint’s  life  “was  not  a chap- 
let of  virtues  or  of  miracles  like  the  lives  of  other  saints.” — 
Contemporary  Review,  Dec.,  1902. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


17 


that  St.  Francis  really  had  visions,  and  he  accuses  the 
Seraphic  Doctor  (p.  89)  of  having  robbed  St.  Francis’ 
sanctity  “of  its  choicest  blossoms”  in  picturing  “the  great- 
er number  of  his  important  resolutions  as  taken  in  con- 
sequence of  dreams.”  The  Saint’s  visions  at  St.  Da- 
mian’s are  spoken  of  as  so  many  hallucinations ; other 
incidents  in  St.  Francis’  life  which  take  on  a supernatural 
tinge,  are  explained  away  (p.  314),  on  the  ground  that 
“ the  imaginations  of  those  who  surrounded  him  were  ex- 
traordinarily overheated,”  while  St.  Francis’  belief  in  the 
existence  of  a personal  devil  is  accounted  for  (p.  190) 
by  the  superstitious  tendency  of  his  times.  Elsewhere 
(p.  130)  M.  Sabatier  speaks  of  the  transformation  of  or- 
dinary facts  into  miracles  by  the  Saint’s  biographers. 

It  may  be  true  that  some  of  the  miracles  attributed  to 
St.  Francis  are  legendary  but  others  such  for  instance  as 
the  curing  of  the  crippled  boy  at  Tuscanella  and  other 
similar  acts  come  to  us  on  such  high  authority  that  even 
the  Saint’s  Protestant  biographers  do  not  hesitate  to 
accept  them.  (50)  But  we  are  quite  ready  for  the  sake 
of  argument  to  forget  the  miracles  worked  by  St.  Fran- 
cis and  to  concede  that  a St.  Francis  without  visions  and 
miracles  might  still  be  a popular  hero,  an  initiator,  a 
great  reformer,  but  he  would  no  longer  be  the  St.  Fran- 
cis of  history.  And  history  obliges  us  to  depict  St. 
Francis  such  as  contemporary  documents  represent  him 
and  not  according  to  that  superstitious  temper  which  dis- 
likes the  idea  of  Divine  “interference.”  As  it  is,  M. 
Sabatier’s  St.  Francis,  however  attractive  a person,  is 
no  true  saint  but  a merely  natural  good  man  in  whom 
the  supernatural  is  no  living  source  of  the  spiritual  life, 


(50)  See  Canon  Knox-Little’s  biography,  p.  246. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


18 


and  yet  as  Father  Cuthbert  points  out,  (51)  “the  real 
value  of  St.  Francis’  life  comes  from  the  fact  that  his 
whole  life  was  one  harmonious  melody;  the  natural  and 
supernatural  being  most  intimately  blended.”  Even 
Renan  confesses  (52)  that  the  life  of  St.  Francis  is 
wholly  imbued  with  the  supernatural.  The  life  of  St. 
Francis  was  moreover  a living  protest  against  a certain 
tendency  to  exalt  the  natural  virtues  at  the  expense  of 
the  supernatural.  “An  ascetic  who  carried  the  practice 
of  the  supernatural  virtues  to  the  highest  degree,”  says 
his  latest  biographer,  (53)  “his  supernaturalism  produced 
its  normal  fruit  in  an  efflorescence  of  social  virtues  which 
found  practical  expression  in  his  numerous  works  for  the 
betterment  of  humanity.” 

M.  Sabatier  is  enthusiastic  over  these  “social  virtues,” 
but  failing  to  grasp  the  meritorious  and  spiritual  princi- 
ple behind  them  he  seeks  in  vain  to  portray  the  ideal  of 
St.  Francis.  It  would  seem  that  poverty  is  the  one  idea 
that  St.  Francis  has  impressed  on  the  mind  of  M.  Saba- 
tier. To  him  St.  Francis  is  above  all  things  the  preacher 
of  poverty.  The  Saint's  life  “was  the  simplest  but  at 
the  same  time  the  most  powerful  realization  of  a unique 
principle — the  principle  of  poverty.”  If  it  be  true  that  as 
between  obedience,  chastity  and  poverty,  St.  Francis  was 
so  especially  enamoured  of  the  last  as  to  make  it  the  spe- 
cial characteristic  of  the  Order  he  founded  he  did  not 


(51)  “Franciscan  Studies,”  by  Father  Cuthbert,  O.S.F.C.,  in 
the  London  Tablet,  Jan.  24,  1903.  We  have  borrowed  Father 
Cuthbert’s  line  of  thought  in  more  than  one  place. 

(52)  Nouvelles  Etudes,  d’histoire  religieuse.  Paris,  1884,  p. 
327- 

(53)  Fr.  Leopold  de  Cherance — St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  Third 
English  Edition,  translated  by  R.  F.  O’Connor.  (London: 
Burns  & Oates,  1901.) 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


19 


thereby  seek  to  make  of  poverty  the  noblest  of  virtues 
as  M.  Sabatier  appears  to  believe.  He  could  not  do  so 
for  the  virtue  of  obedience  stands  first  and  after  it  comes 
chastity.  (54)  This  is  the  order  in  which  they  stand  in 
the  Rule  of  the  Friars  Minor.  (Chap.  1)  M.  Sabatier 
seems  to  think  that  the  mere  giving  up  of  all  the  world 
holds  dear  is  by  itself  sufficient  to  constitute  the  follow- 
ing of  Christ.  The  fact  is  that  poverty  has  no  value  in 
itself  but  derives  all  its  merit  and  beauty  from  its  being 
practiced  for  the  love  of  God.  If  it  be  built  on  pride  or 
ministers  to  pride  it  is  not  good  but  evil.  For  St.  Fran- 
cis poverty  was  the  chosen  virtue  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Holy  Mother,  and  therefore  it  had  become  the  queen  of 
all  other  virtues.  With  these  sentiments  Francis  spoke 
from  the  fulness  of  his  heart  whenever  the  subject 
turned  upon  his  “Lady  Poverty”  whom  he  had  espoused 
forever.  By  these  mystical  nuptials  St.  Francis  sought 
and  found  an  extra  means  of  quickening  that  life  of  the 
spirit  in  which  the  riddle  of  the  world  is  solved.  But 
wedded  as  St.  Francis  was  to  his  Lady  Poverty,  his  love 
for  the  Holy  Eucharist  was  greater  still. 

At  the  Convent  of  the  Celles,  near  Cortona,  there  is  a 
little  church  standing  just  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  St. 
Francis.  Everything  breathes  the  most  absolute  pov- 
erty, but  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  is  of  pure  gold.  Such 
was  his  devotion  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament  that  for  It 
he  forgot  his  beloved  poverty.  (55)  He  gave  orders 
that  a certain  number  of  the  Friars  should  go  about  the 
world  carrying  precious  ciboria.  (56)  They  were  to 

(54)  This  is  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Mooney  in  his  excellent  article 
on  St.  Francis  in  the  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  18,  1903. 

(55)  P-  Teofilo  Dominichelli,  O.F.M.  “L’indole  di  S.  Fran- 
cesco, 1898. 

(56)  II  Cel  III,  cxxix. 


20 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


leave  one  at  every  church  where  they  found  that  “the 
Prisoner  of  the  Tabernacle”  was  not  reposing  in  a ves- 
sel worthy  of  Him.  Fearing  that  hosts  might  be  wanted 
for  the  celebration  of  the  Most  Holy  Sacrifice,  or  that 
they  might  not  be  carefully  prepared,  he  used  to  make 
great  numbers  himself  and  carry  them  to  the  churches 
that  required  them.  In  most  of  his  missions  he  carried  a 
mould  with  which  he  fashioned  these  hosts.  Some  of 
these  moulds  were  formerly  to  be  seen  at  the  Convent  of 
Greccio.  We  have  spoken  of  St.  Francis  devotion  to  the 
Passion.  He  who  loves  the  cross  must  love  the  altar ; 
there  is  the  same  Host,  the  same  Sacrifice.  It  was  one 
of  St.  Francis'  maxims  that  not  to  hear  Mass  every  day 
if  one  can  is  a mark  of  ingratitude  and  contempt.  He 
usually  heard  two  whenever  his  occupations  permitted 
it.  Nor  was  the  union  of  St.  Francis  with  the  Divine 
Victim  merely  an  external  one.  He  communicated  fre- 
quently, (57)  Celano  (II,  cxxix)  tells  us,  and  “so  de- 
voutly as  to  move  others  to  devotion.”  These  are  facts, 
however,  upon  which,  as  might  be  expected,  M.  Sabatier 
does  not  care  to  dwell.  He  prefers  to  linger  over  the 
Saint's  charity  towards  the  leper  and  outcast.  But  the 
same  charity  which  made  St.  Francis  restore  hope  to  the 
leper  and  the  outcast  made  him  also  rekindle  enthusiasm 
among  the  clergy  by  restoring  their  churches.  And  if  it 
be  true  that  one  of  the  chief  works  of  the  friars  was  the 
restoration  of  the  churches,  it  is  no  less  true  that  a still 
greater  work  of  theirs  was  the  restoration  of  the  Euchar- 
istic devotion. 

But  on  this  aspect  of  the  work  of  the  friars  M.  Saba- 


(57  “Frequently’'  is,  of  course,  a relative  term,  and  must  be 
interpreted  by  the  practice  of  St.  Francis’  time.  See  “The  Holy 
Communion,”  by  Father  Dalgairns,  p.  223. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


21 


tier  is  eloquently  silent.  Of  course  he  knows  better  than  to 
suppose  that  it  was  simply  for  the  sake  of  cleanliness 
that  St.  Francis  used  to  sweep  out  the  churches  he  vis- 
ited or  that  it  was  mere  love  of  building  that  made  him 
so  anxious  to  restore  the  dilapidated  Church  of  St.  Da- 
mian. M.  Sabatier  realizes  that  in  doing  these  things 
St.  Francis  was  actuated  by  the  same  motive  as  when 
he  addressed  a letter  to  the  clergy  (58)  in  which  with 
words  of  fire  he  conjures  them  to  show  every  possible 
reverence  to  the  mystery  of  Divine  Love.  But  this  mo- 
tive was  a supernatural  one — based  on  belief  in  the  Real 
Presence  and  M.  Sabatier  knows  that  next  to  the  Pope’s 
supremacy  there  is  no  belief  so  distinctively  “Roman” 
as  that  of  the  Real  Presence  and  so  he  relegates  the 
whole  question  to  a foot-note  (p.  327).  The  artist,  a 
German  critic  tells  us,  is  known  by  what  he  omits  and 
you  may  trust  M.  Sabatier  to  omit  whatever  does  not 
square  with  his  thesis — which  calls  for  the  exclusion  of 
all  that  is  sacramental. 

It  is  doubtless  for  the  same  reason  that  the  beautiful 
story  of  how  St.  Francis  healed  the  leper  has  been  so 
ruthlessly  mutilated.  It  is  recorded  by  the  ancient  chron- 
icler that  after  being  completely  healed  in  body  the  leper 
“confessed  all  his  sins  to  a priest Then  “as  it  pleased 
God  the  leper  healed  in  body  and  soul”  after  “ doing  pen- 
ance for  fifteen  days  fell  sick  of  another  malady  and  for- 
tided  by  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church  he  died  a holy 
death.”  (59)  M.  Sabatier  (p.  142),  relating  this  story 

(58)  This  letter  is  found  in  the  Assisi  MS.  338  fo.  31b,  32b, 
with  the  title,  De  reverentia  Corporis  Domini  et  de  munditia  al- 
taris  ad  o nines  cleric  os. 

(59)  This  story  is  given  by  the  Conformities,  174b,  2,  as  taken 
from  the  Legenda  Antiqua.  It  also  occurs  in  the  Spec.  566  and 
the  Fioretti,  ch.  24.  We  have  quoted  from  the  English  version 


22 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


which  he  accepts  as  historically  true,  omits  the  conclusion 
altogether.  We  merely  cite  this  as  an  instance  of  how 
M.  Sabatier  uses  documents  only  in  so  far  as  they  serve 
his  end  which  in  this  instance  is  to  show  St.  Francis’ 
love  for  these  unfortunates  and  his  method  with  them. 

As  an  example  of  how  he  puts  his  own  interpretation 
on  the  testimony  of  silence  and  passes  over  direct  evi- 
dence we  have  M.  Sabatier’s  description  of  the  Saint’s 
deathbed.  “There,”  he  says  (p.  343),  “in  the  poor  cabin, 
without  altar  and  without  a priest  was  celebrated  the 
Lord’s  Supper.”  It  is  thus  he  describes  the  touching  action 
of  St.  Francis,  who,  believing  it  was  Thursday  evening 
and  desiring,  after  the  example  of  Christ,  to  take  a last 
meal  with  his  disciples,  sent  for  some  bread  and  blessed 
it  and  broke  it  and  gave  a piece  to  each.  (60)  If  M. 
Sabatier  likes  to  call  this  the  “Lord’s  Supper”  he  may, 
but  he  cannot  thereby  transform  it  into  the  Protestant 
Communion  service ; as  Canon  Knox-Little  points  out 
(p.  270)  it  was  nothing  more  than  “a  sort  of  pain  beni” 
such  as  is  distributed  on  certain  feast  days  in  Catholic 
countries.  For  the  rest,  if  our  uniform  actions  have  an 
opposite  tenency  to  those  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the 
language  of  action  was  often  used  owing  to  the  instinc- 
tive taste  for  the  picturesque,  that  should  not  permit  us 
to  misrepresent  those  who  have  preceded  us.  Moreover, 
about  the  Saint’s  deathbed  were  gathered,  not  only  the 


of  the  Fioretti,  published  in  London  by  Kegan  Paul,  1899,  and 
based  upon  the  translation  issued  by  the  Franciscan  Friars  at 
Upton.  Another  English  edition  was  published  by  Burns  & 
Oates,  London,  1887,  with  a preface  by  Cardinal  Manning.  A 
newer  translation  is  that  issued  by  J.  M.  Dent,  London,  1899, 
being  a volume  of  the  Temple  Classics. 

(60)  This  touching  example  given  by  St.  Francis  was  imitated 
in  the  order.  See  the  Life  of  Blessed  Louise  of  Savoy. 


THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


23 


ill-starred  Brother  Elias  and  the  Lady  Jacqueline  of  Set- 
tisoli,  but  also  some  of  his  first  companions  and  among 
them  Brother  Leo,  who  was  not  only  a priest  but  also 
the  Saint’s  confessor,  and  Canon  Knox-Little  distinctly 
states  (p.  270),  that  “St.  Francis  had  received  the  last 
sacraments.”  There  is  another  incident  connected  with 
the  Saint’s  last  days  which  is  not  recorded  by  M.  Saba- 
tier. When  he  felt  his  end  approaching,  St.  Francis  sent 
for  Brother  Benedict,  “a  holy  and  prudent  priest  who 
sometimes  celebrated  for  Bl.  Francis  when  he  lay  ill,  for 
whenever  he  could  he  always  wished  to  hear  Mass , no 
matter  hozu  unwell  he  might  he ” ( Spec.  v.  87),  to  whom  he 
said : “ . . . Write  down  the  blessing  I now  give  to 

all  my  brothers  in  the  Order.  Let  them  be  ever  faithful 
and  submissive  to  the  Prelates  and  Priests  of  Holy  Mo- 
ther Church ” etc.  This  too,  after  the  “disillusion”  of 
which  Sabatier  speaks.  A complete  biography  should 
have  included  this  incident  but  its  insertion  in  Sabatier’s 
book  might  have  spoiled  the  climax  of  his  thesis.  Truly 
it  is  no  easy  task  to  carry  a thesis  and  write  a biography 
at  the  same  time.  One  more  ilustration  will  suffice  to 
confirm  this  fact. 

It  was  late  in  the  evening  of  October  3,  1226,  that  St. 
Francis  breathed  his  last,  praising  God  to  the  end,  (61) 
and  with  his  songs  were  mingled  those  of  the  little  birds 
he  loved  so  well,  for  we  are  told  that  a great  multitude 
of  larks — birds  of  the  light  and  of  the  morning — “came 
above  the  roof  of  the  house  wherein  he  lay,  and,  flying 
a little  way  off,  did  make  a wheel  after  the  manner  of  a 
circle  round  the  roof,  and  by  their  sweet  singing  did 
seem  to  be  praising  the  Lord  along  with  him.”  (62)  So 


(61)  Mortem  cantando  suscepit  ” II  Cel.  c.  xxxix. 

(62)  Spec.,  cxiii. 


24  the  REAL  ST  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI. 


tyrannical  is  M.  Sabatier’s  thesis  that  it  must  break  into 
the  harmonies  of  the  Saint’s  deathbed  by  distorting  this 
touching  incident.  He  calls  it  (p.  344)  “the  canoniza- 
tion of  which  he  (St.  Francis)  was  most  worthy,  the 
only  one,  doubtless,  which  he  would  have  coveted.”  If, 
as  we  fear,  M.  Sabatier  means  by  this  conclusion  to  attri- 
bute any  other  motive  to  St.  Francis  than  that  of  humil- 
ity he  is  attributing  to  the  Saint  quite  gratuitously  a feel- 
ing which  he  never  had.  The  most  extreme  Ultramon- 
tane could  not  be  more  devout  to  the  saints  than  St. 
Francis.  One  day  at  Monte  Casale,  in  the  province  of 
Massa,  he  enjoined  the  friars  of  the  convent  in  that 
town  to  go  and  search  for  relics  in  an  abandoned  church. 
“I  have  long  suffered,”  he  said,  “from  seeing  those  sacred 
bones  deprived  of  the  honor  due  to  them.  You  must 
bring  them  to  the  chapel  of  your  convent  with  all  the  re- 
spect you  can.”  (63) 

This  incident  is  not  recorded  in  M.  Sabatier’s  Life. 
We  likewise  search  in  vain  for  any  mention  of  those  spe- 
cific instructions  which  St.  Francis  left  behind  with  re- 
gard to  particular  practices.  These  instructions  which 
refer  to  such  distinctively  Catholic  practices  as  fasting, 
sacramental  confession  and  prayer  for  the  dead,  etc.,  are 
the  more  valuable  since  they  prove — if  proof  were  need- 
ed— that  St.  Francis’  beliefs  were  positive  and  decided  be- 
liefs, unlike  those  of  his  modern  admirers,  which  vary 
“with  every  wind  of  doctrine.”  (64)  But  St.  Francis’ 
orthodoxy  is  not  on  trial.  It  is  the  accuracy  of  his  bio- 
grapher. And  it  is  especially  with  regard  to  St.  Francis’ 
attitude  towards  the  Papacy  that  M.  Sabatier  seems  to 
be  most  completely  mistaken. 

Fr.  Paschal  Robinson,  O.F.M. 

(63)  II  Cel.,  exxx. 

(64)  Ephes.  iv,  14. 


- 


THE  SERIES  OF 

THE  CATHOLIC  MIND 

THUS  FAR  PUBLISHED  CONTAINS 

No.  i.  REFORM,  TRUE  AND  FALSE. 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Paul  Wilhelm  Von  Keppler. 

No.  2 . THE  LAWS  OF  PROSCRIPTION  IN  FRANCE. 

By  Ferdinand  Brunbtiere,  Editor  of  Deux  Mondes. 

No.  3.  IMPORTANT  PAPAL  DOCUMENTS. 

I.  Bull  of  His  Holiness  Leo  XIII,  on  the  Church  in  the 
Philippine  Islands. 

II.  Constitution  on  the  Institution  of  a Commission  for  Biblical 
Studies. 

III.  Encyclical  Letter  to  the  Bishops  of  Italy  on  Studies  in 

Ecclesiastical  Seminaries. 

IV.  Allocution  to  the  Cardinals,  December  23,  1902. 

N*.  4.  THE  HOLY  SHROUD,  by  Joseph  Braun,  S.  J. 

No.  5.  JUBILEE  SERMON  ON  LEO  XIII,  at  the  New  York 
Cathedral,  March  3,  1903,  by  the  Rev.  T.  J.  Campbell,  S.J. 

No.  6.  THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  ADOLF  HARNACK. 

From  the  Civilta  Cattolica. 

No.  7.  WHAT  THE  CHURCH  HAS  DONE  FOR  EDU- 
CATION. By  the  Rev.  John  A.  Conway,  S.J. 

No.  8.  THE  BIBLE  AND  ASSYRIOLOGY. 

By  Albert  Condamin,  Etudes , March  20. 

No.  9.  THE  ATTITUDE  OF  MODERN  PROTESTANTS 
TOWARDS  THE  VIRGINITY  OF  OUR 
BLESSED  LADY.  By  A.  J.  Maas,  S.J. 

Reprinted  from  the  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review  for  April,  1903. 

Nos.  10,  11.  GALILEO  GALILEI  LINCEO. 

10.  Reprinted  from  the  Catholic  World , October,  1887. 

11.  Reprinted  from  the  Irish  Ecclesiastical  Record , April,  1893. 

No.  12.  THE  RELIGIOUS  CONFLICT  IN  FRANCE. 

Reprinted  from  The  Messenger , July,  1903. 

No.  13.  THE  REAL  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI.  I. 

Fr.  Paschal  Robinson,  O.  F.  M. 


AMONG  OTHER  ARTICLES, 


THE  MESSENGER  JULY 

CONTAINS 

The  Real  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. — II: 

By  Fr.  Paschal  Robinson,  O.F.M. 

The  Transitionists — Ghirlandaio — 

(. Illustrated .)  By  Gabriel  Francis  Powers. 

Corporate  Reunion  with  Rome. 

By  Francis  W.  Grey. 

The  Religious  Conflict  in  France. 

By  D.  Lynch,  S.J. 

The  English  Education  Act  of  1902. 

The  Chronicle  among  other  things  gives  a complete 
current  record  of  the  persecution  of  the  Church  in  France. 

For  Sale  by  all  Newsdealers 

The  Messenger,  27-29  West  16th  Street,  New  York 


